In a survey of 3,700 physicians in eight countries, physicians were asked the main barriers to EMR adoption and health information exchange. Overall, when asked to rank the top five barriers, more than 40 percent of physicians identified “IT systems that can’t ‘talk’ to each other,” “concerns about privacy and security of data,” “cost” and “loss of productivity or excessive time spent inputting data” among their top five challenges. Overall, “lack of financial incentives” was fifth (34 percent of respondents). “Cost” ranked highest as the No. 1 challenge (14 percent of respondents), followed by “privacy and security of patient data” (13 percent) and “IT systems that can’t ‘talk’ to each other” (12 percent).